Raising the bar a little...

Abhainn

Sun: Phoenix Park 14 miles
Officially this my first training run in the park. I was to be a guest to an event at 1:30 so I dropped the OH there at 10am and headed to the park. With the legs heavy and body definitely not fresh from a latish night of too much booze (bloody in laws:rolleyes:) I wasn’t really on top form for this.
I intended on 12 but extended this to 14 miles as I took in the 10 mile route from yesterday and various trails and areas I never knew existed in the park.
An enjoyable run overall
Summary 14 miles @ 06:51 pace

Mon: Booze doesn’t aide recovery
Sometimes there are weekends like this (rare for me) but leg recovery from Sat race would have been minima to Monday. Not good overall but at least I drank litres of O2
Fell into the sack at 11pm the night from a great day. Don’t remember getting to the hotel .
However the lunch time run wasn’t bad at all. Not even many sweats
6 miles @ 07:06 pace

Tues:
Lunch 8.1 miles at 06:41. HR 140.
Good run overall. Legs feel good again and didn’t push it

theboyblunder

Congrats on the PB! I posted almost the same report (only all miles were a good bit slower:)). Chesterfield was a killer

TheRoadRunner

theboyblunder wrote: »

Congrats on the PB! I posted almost the same report (only all miles were a good bit slower:)). Chesterfield was a killer

Was just thinking the same myself. I think everybody felt like dropping out around 6 and 7 mile mark.

Good running Joe, don't know how you managed to run that far Sunday. I'm still wrecked.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Good running Joe.

Pronator

Your made of stone Joe. 6.51 pace for 14 miles the day after the 10, I struggled to run at 7.45 pace. You will come on for that run no doubt.

Do you ever run over 7 min mile pace?:rolleyes:

Abhainn wrote: »

Sun: Phoenix Park 14 miles
Officially this my first training run in the park. I was to be a guest to an event at 1:30 so I dropped the OH there at 10am and headed to the park. With the legs heavy and body definitely not fresh from a latish night of too much booze (bloody in laws:rolleyes:) I wasn’t really on top form for this.
I intended on 12 but extended this to 14 miles as I took in the 10 mile route from yesterday and various trails and areas I never knew existed in the park.
An enjoyable run overall
Summary 14 miles @ 06:51 pace

Mon: Booze doesn’t aide recovery
Sometimes there are weekends like this (rare for me) but leg recovery from Sat race would have been minima to Monday. Not good overall but at least I drank litres of O2
Fell into the sack at 11pm the night from a great day. Don’t remember getting to the hotel .
However the lunch time run wasn’t bad at all. Not even many sweats
6 miles @ 07:06 pace

Tues:
Lunch 8.1 miles at 06:41. HR 140.
Good run overall. Legs feel good again and didn’t push it

Gringo78

Abhainn wrote: »

With 90 runners going sub 60 this was probably the strongest field ever in an Irish 10 miler. 49th position says it all.

Nope....

Ballycotton 10 this year: 107 sub 60, 31 sub 55, your time would have got you 59th

Frank Duffy 90 sub 60, 24 sub 55.

Abhainn

Wed: South Dublin 10.3 miler
I cheekily slipped out of the office a little early for “lunch”. Lucky the Wicked Witch of the West didn’t spot me.:p
A steady run but right knee felt tender from mile 8 to finish.
10.3 miles at 06:46 pace. HR 143

Thurs:
Lunch 7.1 miles at 06:48 /mile. HR 137
Nice steady run again. Knee feels fine.


Fri will be rest day .


Sat and Sun plan
I have to bring forward my long run to Sat this week but that is ok as it will be 7 days before the Waterford half.
I have looked at my training log and in previous times a long run of 21 miles the day after a 10k race and just 6 days before a half seemed not to have had any negative effects. So fingers crosssed
I was going to do a 22 miler but may reduce that to a 20. Hopefully I will get in that 22 miles in two weeks time which will be better. I am trying to delay flying to China until the afternoon of the Sun 11th Sept. I am anxious to get in as much harder stuff as I can as I will not be returning until Oct 1st.
Hard sessions over there will be limited
Will have to hammer it then again for 3.5 weeks - lovely.

Abhainn

Sat:
The body was fresher after a rest day. To make it more interesting I took to a different route for this long run, once I did before.
Very breezy in places and overall a good steady run. Legs felt strong. As usual last half of run quicker than first. Hr a few beats higher than usual. Unlike 2 weeks ago didn’t need a gel and didn’t take one anyway.
Summary: 21.1 miles @ 06:42 pace. HR 146

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/109666597 (first mile signal issue)


Sun:
OH had to leave for work at 8am so this was an early one. I was the road just after 6:30am. No brekkie just a drink of water and off I went in perfect silent conditions. It is fantastic running this early. Hard thing is getting out of the bed.
Enjoyable run, even though yesterdays’ miles were noticeable in my legs. Efficient also.
Managed to get back into bed again for 8am with the kiddies and somehow conned my way watching the athletics in Daegu for an hour.:D

11.2 miles @-6:54 pace. Hr 132

Weekly milage: 64.8


Looks like I’ll be working from home / childminding Mon and Tues. I need to get in some form of speed / interval session Tues so its either very early morning or evening for that. Hmmm I’m not sure about an early morning hardish session. Legs may not respond.
Looking forward to Sat’s race now

Abhainn

Mon:
7.1 miles @ 06:58 pace. HR 136
Worked from home and ran in the evening. Legs heavy so took it easy

Tues: Mile Progression Intervals
Forced to work from home again
I needed to get in this session before 8am when OH left for work. Only water in my belly and it was a perfect morning. Plan was 1st interval @05:45 then – 5 secs each of the rest. It was my first time doing a hardish session before 9am. Midway through the first rep and I was finding it really hard to get moving. Profile wise it was the hardest but I just couldn’t reach 05:45 pace. I seriously thought about bailing out on this session. Though I never bailed out on a session yet. 1st in 05:52. FEELING CRAP. Legs still asleep. I talked myself into a 2nd and pretty much met my 05:40 target. Felt fcuked at the end of this one. Legs finally got moving for 3rd in 05:34 and 4th 05:26. Ok last two profile was favourable but felt strong in the last. Next time I’ll be taking gel or something before I leave the house and include at least 3 miles warm up
Recovery miles @07:10 pace
Total 8.7 @ 06:19 pace. HR 146

Wed:
Lunch 7.1 miles @ 06:46. HR 137.
Sound run

Thur:
Rest

Fri:Lunch 5.3 miles @06:46. HR139
Short run before half tomorrow and threw in some pick ups in this

National Half Waterford preview:
Last year I ran 76:58 in the Park. That was with same preparation time and less preparation as this one. The route then wasn’t easy and the breeze was strong in places.
Tomorrow the route is flatter but the breeze may be noticeable. Form and fitness wise I am ahead of last year. All I need to do now is not be as stupid as the recent 10 miler. Take her steady. Target is 75:xx

TheRoadRunner

Good luck tomorrow.

Seres

better luck this time round , although i thought that 10mi result was a pretty impressive preformance

theboyblunder

good luck abhainn!

aero2k

Best of luck Joe, no bother to you.

Apologies for leaving you out of my list of impressive runs in my Frank Duffy report - you were so matter-of-fact after the race it didn't register with me that your 57:XX was a pb.

Looking forward to tales of another great run.

Abhainn

Abhainn wrote: »

National Half Waterford preview:
Last year I ran 76:58 in the Park. That was with same preparation time and less preparation as this one. The route then wasn’t easy and the breeze was strong in places.
Tomorrow the route is flatter but the breeze may be noticeable. Form and fitness wise I am ahead of last year. All I need to do now is not be as stupid as the recent 10 miler. Take her steady. Target is 75:xx

I wasn't stupid. Can't put my finger on it


National Half Marathon Race Report

Finish time 1:17:27. HR 174

On the face of it the above time isn’t a disaster but it was some 90 secs outside my target. However overall it was a most unpleasant run.
Hooked up with Beepbeep67 for trip down. He was driving and I felt good before the race. Conditions were almost ideal apart from a heavy shower after midway into the race. There were some serious runners in the race, one of the best line-ups ever.
My aim was high 75's. Go through 5 miles in 29:00, 10 in under 58 and then hold for home. The course was favourable to 4 miles then long drags to mile 10 with one testing hill at 6.
Lined up for the first time with my club mates in our Sli Cualann singlet. The first mile was lively and fast and hit mile 1 in 05:35. After this I settled back to planned pace of just under 05:50. I ran early with 2 others but soon after made my way up to a large group, which totalled 13. This was just ideal and I settled in well out of trouble at exactly the pace I was aiming for.
However something wasn’t right. By mile 2 my HR was high, unusually high for this steady pace and so early. I ignored it hoping it would stabilise. Hit mile 5 exactly on target at 29:00. The course was now entering the long drags, which were noticeable but nothing that should have been too hard. However I was coming under pressure as HR had continued to climb. At mile 6 we turned onto a narrow road and a nice little climb. The group started to break up and I found myself getting tailed off.
With half the race to go I was struggling. I was in pain and working too hard. I should only be working that hard with perhaps 2 miles left. Mentally I was flagging too. The route had a steep downhill section past mile 7 onto the return mail road but the legs weren’t responding.
The next few miles weren’t pretty. I felt like ****. Somehow I got the through mile 8, which was my lowest point. I almost slowed to a jog at that water station. Even tough I thought the pace was slow I was actually catching up on the remnants of the group ahead. The final 3 miles weren’t easy, was overtaken by a few but I perked pace up again for the final half mile and finished fairly well making up a few places.
I can’t put my finger on what went wrong. The week sessions in the lead up to the race shouldn’t have had a negative effect. According to the HR data similar workouts in the past month compared to one years’ previous are way better. A big disappointment.

48 days to Dublin up to 27 days out of the country where key sessions will be next to impossible
At a crossroads ….

Miles splits
1. 05:35
2. 05:49
3. 05:46
4. 05:55
5. 05:53
6. 05:55
7. 05:53
8. 05:50
9. 06:16
10. 06:01
11. 05:52
12. 06:06
13. 05:56
14. 00:35

Abhainn

Sunday AM:
12 miles @06:54 pace. HR142
Met up with a club runner for a lopp of the local areaq
Didn’t intend pace to be as quick as this. Legs weren’t bad but left hip tight.

Miles for week = 54.5

Mon:
Lunch 6 miles @ 07:13 pace. HR 131
Easy run and not too bad. Still hurting mentally from Sat race

Tues:
Lunch 8.1 miles @ 06:55. HR 134
Got soaked and it was miserable out there for this. Not very inspiring

Seres

Sorry to hear the race didnt go as well as expected , hope it doesnt affect you confidence for dublin

tunguska

Abhainn wrote: »

However something wasn’t right. By mile 2 my HR was high, unusually high for this steady pace and so early.

I dont know Joe, it seems in this case that the HR monitor did you no favors. I think it played on your mind and influenced, not in a constructive way, how you ran that race. If I had a heartrate monitor on me saturday I probably would've ended up scaring the beejaysus out of myself, and consequently dropped the pace. Ignorance can be a good thing.

shotgunmcos

tunguska wrote: »

...Ignorance can be a good thing.

+1 sure can. Being a slave to the HRM can be to your detriment at times. Trust RPE as that never lies, especially if you know your own levels. HR can often be higher in a race than for the same pace in training simply because of the adrenalin. Lots of factors. If all esle fails your usual game of "how many victims.. " could be the thing to put you back in the zone

Pronator

Joe - the last time I wore a HR monitor was the Dublin 2008 marathon. The stats I saw after it nearly put me off running and I have not put one near me since. By the sounds of things you may well have had a virus with your HR unusually high.:eek:

I'd put this behind you and move on:cool:

stipes212

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Trust RPE as that never lies,

What is this RPE?

dna_leri

I gave up wearing a HRM in races recently, best move I made.
I only wear it now when I want to keep a close eye on pace and effort.
Just sayin'

Slogger Jogger

Considering you felt s*** you did very well to hang on in there and achieve a time the rest of us would pay for. Pretty solid splits, again considering too. As pronator says put it behind you, move on. Any bug should be pretty well run out of your system now at least :rolleyes:

Abhainn

Cheers folks.

tunguska wrote: »

I dont know Joe, it seems in this case that the HR monitor did you no favors. I think it played on your mind and influenced, not in a constructive way, how you ran that race. If I had a heartrate monitor on me saturday I probably would've ended up scaring the beejaysus out of myself, and consequently dropped the pace. Ignorance can be a good thing.

I actually didn't refer to the HR often and I didn't drop the pace intentionally. The legs just didn't have it.

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Considering you felt s*** you did very well to hang on in there and achieve a time the rest of us would pay for. Pretty solid splits, again considering too. As pronator says put it behind you, move on. Any bug should be pretty well run out of your system now at least :rolleyes:

Ya cheers SJ. Maybe it was just one of those days.


Moving on

Actually I have about 53 days to Dublin so not too bad:)

Wed: Lunch 10 miles at 06:51 pace. HR136
After an uninspiring run Tues I decided to take a nosey look around Tallaght
and it outskirts for 8 miles or so.
The first 4 miles were against the wind but after that it was a good and comfortable run in areas I was never before. As KC mentioned the tarmac along the new Luas line was nice (wind on my back)
The extra 2 miles were down to mis calculation of not knowing where I was.Left hip somewhat sore in last mile

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112869000

Thurs
Rest

Abhainn

I’ve been tired all week and can’t sleep more than 7hrs. All the family (including MIL who’s staying until Fri) have been ill with some bug at some point since early in the week. The dog and me haven’t puked yet, well he hasn’t told me so anyway. Perhaps I did have something for last weeks race

Sat AM: Bailing out
I’m not the one for bailing out in a session. The only one I ever had to bail out of was cutting short a tempo run over 2 years back. It didn’t affect me though in a half marathon 4 days later when I managed a small PB.
For the first time in ages I measured my resting HR in bed – 55BPM. It should be low 40’s. Outlook for the run wasn’t good
Plan today was 12 miles with 6 @ 07:00 and last 6 @ 06:05. (MP). Met up with a club runner who is coming back from injury. He is quicker than me up to 10k this year. The conditions were very humid and windy. My left hip was slightly sore so I was aware not to mess it up any further. First 2 at 05:57, 06:09 when Finn eased back. Decided on a 3rd but the pain was now noticeable and finished up with a 06:00 a bit sickened. The wind was directly on my face but even if it was dead calm and my hip was ok I could only have managed perhaps another 2. Eased back to 7 min miles, and plodded home. Finally decided on some anti flamms and ice treatment.

Sunday AM: Long run - Painkillers work
After yesterday’s failure a long run wouldn’t be a good idea. Having to jet off tomorrow it would be 3 weeks again before I could get a long run in. Hot humid conditions where the locals wear masks don’t provide for the best running conditions.
So I took a gamble. The original distance was 22 miles but I knew that was probably beyond my hips’ wishes. Popped a few pills ands hooked up with Pronator for 8 miles of this. He was also on a 22 miler. We kept the pace easy (07:09/mile) and the first hour passed quicker. It was great to have company; we had a good moan, as training for the both of us isn’t going 100%. At 9 miles I popped a few more anti flammes as my hip was sore and tightening up. At 10 I stretched it again and the last miles were fairly ok Decided 19 were enough, a kind of a bail out again but still a useful outing. Let hope it’s enough until Oct 2nd

Summary: 19 miles @06:58 pace. HR139

Seres

Went thru a low ebb there in training couple of weeks back too , missed races had alot of niggles and a house sickness , stick with it and you'll come out stronger the other end , a week or two can turn all that stuff on its head

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Plenty of germs going around the houses just make sure you let the body fully recover.
On the hip pain is it a one off or an ongoing issue? Might need to look at your flexibility and try to open up the hip flexors a bit more.

Krusty_Clown

Abhainn wrote: »

Summary: 19 miles @06:58 pace. HR139

That's you in bad shape? Jesus...
Hope the Asia trip goes ok..

Abhainn

Celeste Rotten Tile wrote: »

Plenty of germs going around the houses just make sure you let the body fully recover.
On the hip pain is it a one off or an ongoing issue? Might need to look at your flexibility and try to open up the hip flexors a bit more.

Once off issue, never had problems with my hips in the past
I'll research the flexibility - cheers.

Abhainn

Monday
Didn’t run, as I wanted to give hip a rest.
Travel then to China

Tues:
26hrs of travelling (and about 3 hrs light sleep) I arrive in hotel at 7pm.
Running was last thing on my mind. Logged onto work server to find out a company meeting called for 10pm.
It was only to announce that our parent company was shutting us down.
Never forget if you work for a big company, you’re only a number - Employee ID 000990514
Some how media hasn’t learned of the 52 job losses yet.

Wed:
Finally went to sleep just before 5am.
At 10:30 received a phone call saying there was a power outage at the company I was going to so no need to leave hotel.
To clear my head did 7.5 miles progression run on the treadmill,
Avg pace: 07:08 / mile. HR 136

It was possible I’d be coming home at the weekend but then informed no change to original plan. Difficult time.
Thurs: Early am
Another terrible nights sleep. Perhaps 4.5hrs.
However it was time to check out how difficult it would be to run in this pace at this time of year.
It’s a very modern and busy city. Most of us would have ignorance about China in Ireland. Backward, poor, bad infasturure. Yes there are poor people here but the smallest car I’ve seen a new Mini. Most of the tall buildings are architectural beautiful, streets spotless thanks to those with large brooms and sacks for the rubbish on their bikes.

So the run just before dawn takes me from hotel to the prom



overlooking the brown waters of the South China Sea to the border to Macau (the Garmin route has me inside the border for some reason). Humid and warm and I’m dripping soon. On the return route I pass by a bad sewage smell opening flowing into the sea. 200 meters further up I see a woman with a hammer removing some form of shellfish from the rocks.:rolleyes:

Summary: 6.3 miles @07:14 pace. HR 138
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/114405647


Thurs: Evening
I was at the company an hour when another power outage occurred. The power companies occasionally cut the power as they want to reserve it for the building developments. Because of the Fukushima disaster the Chinese are nevous of something similar happening over here so the nuclear plants now only run at 100% of their capability instead of 120%!
Back to hotel and managed 2 hrs sleep before I tacked into some work. Felt like a new man

So off to the treadmill and 5 miles easy progression @ avg 07:20 / mile pace. HR 126

TheRoadRunner

Sorry to hear about uncertainties with your job. Hopefully things will work out.

Regards the hip pain, I've had it myself in the past. Do some stretches daily now and it's not an issue anymore. I'll pm you some stretch pics when I get a chance. My issue was tight flexors. Could be something similar for yourself. Trip to the Physio might be on the cards to make sure. By the way any lower back pain?